The present invention relates to a facsimile apparatus having an E-mail (Electronic mail) transmission/reception function through a computer network such as the Internet or LAN and, more particularly, to a facsimile apparatus having a specific feature in handling a file attached to E-mail.
At present, people often attach document files to E-mail messages instead of creating documents by computers and printing them, and transmitting them by facsimile.
However, when a file is attached and transmitted by a personal computer (PC) or facsimile apparatus having an E-mail function, the receiving apparatus cannot open the contents unless the file formats do not match. Eventually, although the mail can be received, information cannot be transmitted.
In this case, additionally, since the mail transmitting side cannot confirm, as a procedure, file formats processible on the receiving side, and mail transmission itself terminates normally, the transmitting side tends to understand that the receiving side has received the file and read its contents.
The present invention has been made in consideration of the problems of the prior art, and has as its object to provide a facsimile apparatus having an E-mail transmission/reception function and capable of correctly transmitting the contents of a file attached to E-mail even when the file cannot be opened on the receiving side.
More specifically, according to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a facsimile apparatus having facsimile communication means for performing facsimile communication through a public switched telephone network (PSTN), and data communication means for performing data communication through a computer network, characterized by comprising error detection means for detecting that a data file received by data communication cannot be normally rasterized or reconstructed to a correct state, and retransmission request means for sending a retransmission request message to a transmission source of the data file in response to detection by the error detection means so as to request the transmission source to retransmit, by facsimile communication through the public switched telephone network, the data file received by data communication.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a facsimile apparatus having facsimile communication means for performing facsimile communication through a public switched telephone network, and data communication means for performing data communication through a computer network, characterized by comprising retransmission request detection means for detecting whether a retransmission request message has been received in correspondence with a data file transmitted by data communication, and retransmission control means for, in correspondence with detection of the retransmission request message, generating image data in which the data file is correctly rasterized or reconstructed, and transmitting the image data to a transmission source of the retransmission request message by facsimile communication.
According to still another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a facsimile system characterized in that the above-described facsimile apparatuses are connected through a public switched telephone network and/or a computer network.
According to still another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a computer-readable storage medium which stores a program for controlling a facsimile apparatus having facsimile communication means for performing facsimile communication through a public switched telephone network, and data communication means for performing data communication through a computer network, characterized by comprising the program of the error detection step of detecting that a data file received by data communication cannot be normally rasterized or reconstructed to a correct state, and the program of the retransmission request step of sending a retransmission request message to a transmission source of the data file in response to detection in the error detection step so as to request the transmission source to retransmit, by facsimile communication through the public switched telephone network, the data file received by data communication.
According to still another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a computer-readable storage medium which stores a program for controlling a facsimile apparatus having facsimile communication means for performing facsimile communication through a public switched telephone network, and data communication means for performing data communication through a computer network, characterized by comprising the program of the retransmission request detection step of detecting whether a retransmission request message has been received in correspondence with a data file transmitted by data communication, and the program of the retransmission control step of, in correspondence with detection of the retransmission request message, generating image data in which the data file is correctly rasterized or reconstructed, and transmitting the image data to a transmission source of the retransmission request message by facsimile communication.
Other features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like reference characters designate the same or similar parts throughout the figures thereof.
The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of the specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.